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An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World
Anders Halverson provides an exhaustively researched and grippingly rendered account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Discovered in the remote waters of northern California, rainbow trout have been artificially propagated and distributed for more than 130 years by government officials eager to present Americans with an opportunity to get back to nature by going fishing. Proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers, the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state and province in the United States and Canada and to every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on the native fauna. Halverson examines the paradoxes and reveals a range of characters, from nineteenth-century boosters who believed rainbows could be the saviors of democracy to twenty-first-century biologists who now seek to eradicate them from waters around the globe. Ultimately, the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world—how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 3, 2010
A really interesting, and well-researched book about the perils of messing with Mother Nature (in this case, by introducing rainbow trout to bodies of water for the purpose of creating excellent fishing spots). This book is also quite well-written.
September 12, 2010
I'll never look at any trout the same way. It's not just for people who like fish -- it's a great book for anyone interested in nature and the history of our country.
May 7, 2010
Amazing book. Especially for someone like me who has spent much of his life in pursuit of various trout.
I was worried this book might be too scientific and full of jargon that the non-scientist might find hard to understand, but it was actually a very enjoyable and easily read book.
I learned so much from this book and I plan to talk about it amongst my fishing buddies when we are out on the Rogue or Deschutes some time.
I was worried this book might be too scientific and full of jargon that the non-scientist might find hard to understand, but it was actually a very enjoyable and easily read book.
I learned so much from this book and I plan to talk about it amongst my fishing buddies when we are out on the Rogue or Deschutes some time.
February 23, 2025
Amazing book, would recommend to anyone interested in fisheries. The storytelling of the dominance of rainbow trout across the US and globally is super interesting and puts into perspective the impact humans have had on native fish communities. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about the use of rotenone on the Green River (trib to the Colorado River) to supplant natives fishes and the negative impacts that introduced rainbows have on both aquatic and terrestrial communities in the Sierra Nevadas.
June 17, 2017
So many palm-to-forehead moments were had while I read "An Entirely Synthetic Fish." The biggest one came for me toward the end where the author makes the persuasive, complicated case that in many watersheds the rainbow trout has led to the functional extinction of certain pureblooded native trout, even though the trout in those waters still *look* like the original native trout. Whoa. The vigor by which mankind has spread this fish far & wide across the globe is rather astounding, and the fish have responded in kind, much to the detriment of many other species, piscine, amphibian, and invertebrate. I had no idea that an individual fish species has had such an impact across the many ecosystems of the United States alone. Amazing. I need to share this book with my pal Dave Diamond. He might enjoy this book. The tussles between researchers, who learned that fish stocking, and in particular airborne fish stocking, was simply a wasteful practice in many western watersheds, and the state fish & wildlife people who had careers comprised of decades' worth of fish stocking, was quite memorable. Who likes to hear their life's work was simply a futile waste of taxpayers' funds?
January 23, 2025
Amazing read. Great insights, very informative, and extremely relevant to anyone wanting to learn more about fisheries.
August 16, 2014
Eighty million Rainbow Trout are stocked in American waters every year. In total, nearly 20 million pounds. That's 20 trout per every new American born every year. Since the 1870s Rainbows have been introduced into every State and eighty different countries. The genes of this fish can be traced to fish that lived in the upper reaches of the McCloud River in California. Today, there are more than 75 strains of Rainbow Trout, genetically manipulated to living in a wide range of conditions, hence the title "An Entirely Synthetic Fish." But this book is so much more than the history of Oncorhynchus mykiss and I recommend it to anyone interested fishery biology, wild life, fly fishing, American history and conservation issues.
I particularly enjoyed the book's history on American sport fishing. An outdoor life, that included hunting and fishing, was thought to cultivate citizens with a variety important personal qualities such as courage and independence. But in the 19th Century there was a fear we would become a "less bold and spirited nation" because of the loss sport fishing due to decreasing wild fish populations which was being caused by agriculture, lumbering, mining, the growth of cities, loss of natural habitats and the over harvesting of fish. America used a technology fix to the loss fishing game through fish cultural. There were public and private attempts to raise fish in hatcheries to replace diminishing wild fish. Even the esteemed nature writer John Muir suggested putting fish in American waters to draw people to wild places. Fish were planted everywhere. Federal and State Fishing Commissions went so far as poison rivers to kill all native fish and replace them with sport fish like the Rainbow. Among the 1000 high mountain lakes of the West only 5% contained fish 100 years ago. By carpet bombing those lakes with trout dropped from surplus WWII bombers 60% of those lakes now have fish.
This view of putting hatchery fish everywhere is changing. Some river systems are no longer stocking fish, allowing the populations to grow wild. There are efforts to return native fish to their historical waters and remove non-native fish. But overall, the places where non-native fish have been planted are much greater than the number of places where non-native fishes have been removed.
Read this book for the big questions. How do we balance the many competing interests over natural resources? But, more importantly, what is our place in nature? Our we its stewards? Masters? As the author says, "I have become convinced…the root of many of these disputes lies in deeply held, seldom-dicsussed beliefs about the rightful human place in the natural world."
I particularly enjoyed the book's history on American sport fishing. An outdoor life, that included hunting and fishing, was thought to cultivate citizens with a variety important personal qualities such as courage and independence. But in the 19th Century there was a fear we would become a "less bold and spirited nation" because of the loss sport fishing due to decreasing wild fish populations which was being caused by agriculture, lumbering, mining, the growth of cities, loss of natural habitats and the over harvesting of fish. America used a technology fix to the loss fishing game through fish cultural. There were public and private attempts to raise fish in hatcheries to replace diminishing wild fish. Even the esteemed nature writer John Muir suggested putting fish in American waters to draw people to wild places. Fish were planted everywhere. Federal and State Fishing Commissions went so far as poison rivers to kill all native fish and replace them with sport fish like the Rainbow. Among the 1000 high mountain lakes of the West only 5% contained fish 100 years ago. By carpet bombing those lakes with trout dropped from surplus WWII bombers 60% of those lakes now have fish.
This view of putting hatchery fish everywhere is changing. Some river systems are no longer stocking fish, allowing the populations to grow wild. There are efforts to return native fish to their historical waters and remove non-native fish. But overall, the places where non-native fish have been planted are much greater than the number of places where non-native fishes have been removed.
Read this book for the big questions. How do we balance the many competing interests over natural resources? But, more importantly, what is our place in nature? Our we its stewards? Masters? As the author says, "I have become convinced…the root of many of these disputes lies in deeply held, seldom-dicsussed beliefs about the rightful human place in the natural world."
February 18, 2015
It is sad to learn that all American streams, except perhaps in Alaska, have been stocked with non-native fish. The extent to which nature has been altered is sobering.
The author is a journalist with a Ph.D. in ecology. The writing is engaging and the subject is well-researched. I supposed what one gets from this book will vary depending on how much one already knows about trout in North America. For me, this wasn’t much. The book tells what original ranges were of the various trout and a little history of how these developed after the last ice age. There is not a lot of detail on this, but just enough for developing a general concept that can be remembered. The main point of the book is what people have done with trout in North America. The background for this is the destruction of water bodies in the eastern U.S. a century after the founding of the country, and the acceptance of this in prevailing attitudes at the time. While I knew something about how rivers in the east had been dammed, I didn’t realize how much they had also been polluted, and I had no idea that this was seen as an unavoidable cost of civilization. It’s hard to know from this era, but the author claims the prevailing wisdom of the late 19 century was that habitat destruction was inevitable and regulation of polluters or of fisheries was unthinkable. Regulation of hunting or fishing was thought of as an unacceptable throw-back to the aristocratic rule of the old world. This meant that stocking hatchery fish was the only way to provide for sport fisheries. Joseph Remy and Antoine Gehin were the first people known to propagate fish in a hatchery in France in the mid 1800’s. Shortly afterward, many states in the U.S. had established fish commissions which propagated and stocked fish. In covering rainbow trout, the book touches on many things, including movements to import old world species to North America (and also to establish new world species in other parts of the world), early taxonomic problems with the salmon genus, the massive project to kill all the fish in the Green River prior to it being dammed and then stocking it with rainbow trout, the beginnings of the Endangered Species Act, how it was found that stocking fish actually decreased fish populations, the beginnings of Trout Unlimited, the discovery of whirling disease and its impact and relationship to hatcheries, hybridization of hatchery rainbow trout with native cutthroat trout, the stocking of the lakes of the high Sierras (including carpet bombing techniques), and the eventual discovery that these fish were driving native frogs to extinction. The writing jumps around in time enough to make me wonder why it is organized quite the way it is. It could be more fluid, but is still very readable.
The author is a journalist with a Ph.D. in ecology. The writing is engaging and the subject is well-researched. I supposed what one gets from this book will vary depending on how much one already knows about trout in North America. For me, this wasn’t much. The book tells what original ranges were of the various trout and a little history of how these developed after the last ice age. There is not a lot of detail on this, but just enough for developing a general concept that can be remembered. The main point of the book is what people have done with trout in North America. The background for this is the destruction of water bodies in the eastern U.S. a century after the founding of the country, and the acceptance of this in prevailing attitudes at the time. While I knew something about how rivers in the east had been dammed, I didn’t realize how much they had also been polluted, and I had no idea that this was seen as an unavoidable cost of civilization. It’s hard to know from this era, but the author claims the prevailing wisdom of the late 19 century was that habitat destruction was inevitable and regulation of polluters or of fisheries was unthinkable. Regulation of hunting or fishing was thought of as an unacceptable throw-back to the aristocratic rule of the old world. This meant that stocking hatchery fish was the only way to provide for sport fisheries. Joseph Remy and Antoine Gehin were the first people known to propagate fish in a hatchery in France in the mid 1800’s. Shortly afterward, many states in the U.S. had established fish commissions which propagated and stocked fish. In covering rainbow trout, the book touches on many things, including movements to import old world species to North America (and also to establish new world species in other parts of the world), early taxonomic problems with the salmon genus, the massive project to kill all the fish in the Green River prior to it being dammed and then stocking it with rainbow trout, the beginnings of the Endangered Species Act, how it was found that stocking fish actually decreased fish populations, the beginnings of Trout Unlimited, the discovery of whirling disease and its impact and relationship to hatcheries, hybridization of hatchery rainbow trout with native cutthroat trout, the stocking of the lakes of the high Sierras (including carpet bombing techniques), and the eventual discovery that these fish were driving native frogs to extinction. The writing jumps around in time enough to make me wonder why it is organized quite the way it is. It could be more fluid, but is still very readable.
June 4, 2013
I sincerely enjoyed the read. Given Halverson's academic background, I suppose I expected more of an academic, technical writing style: not necessarily a vocabulary that is technical to the point of cumbersome (which would really be inappropriate and quickly descend into gobbledygook in a text marketed to the general public), but the sparser writing style that I would expect of a professional scientist, a style reduced to almost bare-bones concision. This book is very much not that. It is a warmly conversational and sincerely entertaining discussion, all in easily understood lay terms that belies the suite of very technical concepts that is its subject matter. Simply anybody who appreciates the fact that fish exist is likely to be able to easily digest the contents of this book and be enriched for it.
Halverson truly endeavors to set historic management decisions regarding rainbow trout, coldwater fisheries, and aquaculture in a historical context--considering the best status-quo management practices of their time--to make those stocking decisions of the past not seem so damning from a current conservationist perspective. However, while striving to give an objective voice to the other side, his personal (and subjective . . . perhaps even just a little judgmental) feelings of presented historic situations seem evident.
This book is also entertaining throughout. I really enjoyed the presentation of history of some of North America's pioneers of ichthyology, fisheries management, and aquaculture. The chapter on some of the seeming absurdities of the aerial stocking (from airplane) of aquatic organisms occasionally had me audibly guffawing.
Check it and become mentally enriched, all my ichthyic homies.
Halverson truly endeavors to set historic management decisions regarding rainbow trout, coldwater fisheries, and aquaculture in a historical context--considering the best status-quo management practices of their time--to make those stocking decisions of the past not seem so damning from a current conservationist perspective. However, while striving to give an objective voice to the other side, his personal (and subjective . . . perhaps even just a little judgmental) feelings of presented historic situations seem evident.
This book is also entertaining throughout. I really enjoyed the presentation of history of some of North America's pioneers of ichthyology, fisheries management, and aquaculture. The chapter on some of the seeming absurdities of the aerial stocking (from airplane) of aquatic organisms occasionally had me audibly guffawing.
Check it and become mentally enriched, all my ichthyic homies.
July 10, 2015
I'm not a big fan of fishing, but I am a big fan of fish, and this well-researched book sheds a lot of light on trout, fish hatcheries (I enjoy them so much we visited one on our honeymoon!), and the practice of stocking. I naively thought that many rivers, streams, and lakes were in a "natural" state as far as fish populations go, but Halverson educated me about wild, native, and hatchery-raised trout, and much of the history behind them. The chapter on Chronic Whirling Disease is especially informative. I've never though of Trout Unlimited as an influential lobbying organization, but I do now!
March 26, 2014
A fabulous story about the consequences of meddling with nature this book by a Professor of ecology and avid fly-fisherman traces the spread of a single species of fish around the globe and the resultant impact on the habitats in which it has been introduced. Worth reading it for the history, the natural history and the allegory.
November 14, 2013
This book is much more than just a fly fisherman's history lesson on rainbow trout. In particular, I found the evolution of U.S. environmental policy regarding mgmt. of inland waters and fisheries to be bizarrely entertaining. I'd recommend it to anglers and outdoorsman of all types.
August 29, 2017
Fascinating book, a must read for anglers and those interested in environmental policy.
If you've ever been fishing and wondered about where the fish came from and how fish is managed in the USA, this book is a great place to start. Contrary to what I assumed before starting this book. The fish in my local lakes, rivers, and ponds are not native but actually invasive species. And up until recently, fish management in the USA was not guided by principles of science and conservation, but good ol' fashioned consumer capitalism.
Turns out, that like everything else, the decisions that go behind what fish are put where is decided almost entirely by profit. Entire river systems in North America were poisoned in order to eliminate native species to make room for "sport fish" like bass and especially trout. And the vast majority of these trout, as it turns out, are just as artificially bred as modern cattle and chickens. They're specially bred to be extra large, stupid, aggressive tasteless blobs of flesh raised on artificial feed in concrete tanks. They are then stocked into ponds, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs to be instantly caught. Those that elude capture destroy these ecosystems and drive out other more naturally occurring fish before starving and dying on their own.
That's how the fishing business goes in most of the USA, and it's what the fishing industry relies on. There is a small sliver hope in states like Montana, in which emphasis is going towards conserving and rehabilitating native trout species and eradicating these synthetic zombie rainbow trout.
If you, like I was, had a passing interest in this subject and didn't know any of that. Then I highly recommend this book.
If you've ever been fishing and wondered about where the fish came from and how fish is managed in the USA, this book is a great place to start. Contrary to what I assumed before starting this book. The fish in my local lakes, rivers, and ponds are not native but actually invasive species. And up until recently, fish management in the USA was not guided by principles of science and conservation, but good ol' fashioned consumer capitalism.
Turns out, that like everything else, the decisions that go behind what fish are put where is decided almost entirely by profit. Entire river systems in North America were poisoned in order to eliminate native species to make room for "sport fish" like bass and especially trout. And the vast majority of these trout, as it turns out, are just as artificially bred as modern cattle and chickens. They're specially bred to be extra large, stupid, aggressive tasteless blobs of flesh raised on artificial feed in concrete tanks. They are then stocked into ponds, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs to be instantly caught. Those that elude capture destroy these ecosystems and drive out other more naturally occurring fish before starving and dying on their own.
That's how the fishing business goes in most of the USA, and it's what the fishing industry relies on. There is a small sliver hope in states like Montana, in which emphasis is going towards conserving and rehabilitating native trout species and eradicating these synthetic zombie rainbow trout.
If you, like I was, had a passing interest in this subject and didn't know any of that. Then I highly recommend this book.
August 25, 2020
Not so long ago, people thought it was a good idea to stock America’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs with non-native fish. Even better, kill off the “undesirable” local fish and replace them with fish that would be more fun for sportsmen. State and federal agencies, private fishing clubs, even individuals participated. The next thing you know, rainbow trout that were native to a thin band in the northwest were the predominant fish in the United States, and were also stocked on every continent except Antarctica. This book covers a fairly narrow topic and at less than 200 pages is a quick read. I enjoyed it, particularly the little tidbits like dropping parachute-equipped beavers from small airplanes. That’s a topic I’d like Halverson to expand on in a future book.
April 10, 2025
Trout! I like the species!
This was a quick read. It has some straight forward facts and writing and I think mostly unbiased information.
The author is not against or anti-rainbow trout. In fact he thinks they're cool. However, the author does raise and address ecological concerns about the fish. It's been over-stocked around the lower-48. Genetics are an issue as well as hybridization with other native fish. Rainbows can essentially become an invasive species and annihilate ecosystems. There are conservation concerns the author touches on.
If you're a trout angler this would be worth reading. If you're interested in the environment I'd pick this up. If you just like fish(ing) in general I'd say pick this up.
This was a quick read. It has some straight forward facts and writing and I think mostly unbiased information.
The author is not against or anti-rainbow trout. In fact he thinks they're cool. However, the author does raise and address ecological concerns about the fish. It's been over-stocked around the lower-48. Genetics are an issue as well as hybridization with other native fish. Rainbows can essentially become an invasive species and annihilate ecosystems. There are conservation concerns the author touches on.
If you're a trout angler this would be worth reading. If you're interested in the environment I'd pick this up. If you just like fish(ing) in general I'd say pick this up.
July 3, 2020
A fascinating and important read for anglers
Being an avid fisherman (with trout being the usual quarry due to where I live). I found this book very engaging due to it discussing not only the history of how rainbow trout became so dominant in their introduced environments, but also how they have affected policy and economy up to the present day. I don't think I will ever look at "bows" the same way ever again after reading this book!
Being an avid fisherman (with trout being the usual quarry due to where I live). I found this book very engaging due to it discussing not only the history of how rainbow trout became so dominant in their introduced environments, but also how they have affected policy and economy up to the present day. I don't think I will ever look at "bows" the same way ever again after reading this book!
December 29, 2024
Incredible book. The way Halverson writes and researches his book with such a genuinely curious spirit makes this a definitive “biography of the hatchery trout” which can be read and appreciated by both traditionalist anglers and native-only environmentalists alike. Truly appreciate this book/project and a gift to all who care about salmonids, the history of the American West and philosophies of man’s relationship to nature both past and present.
May 13, 2025
Well researched and cautionary tale of humans innate sense to screw up the natural world. This book is basically the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks - of trout. Most trout stocked globally today relate back to trout from initial stocking efforts led in the 1800s. Rainbow trout while fun to catch, have been spread globally to the detriment of native species, but also the benefit of anglers and conservation funding.
January 10, 2023
Honestly I wish I had read this when I was still working as an educator at a trout hatchery even though it was based entirely on US fisheries history.
A fascinating history of the expanding range of rainbow and brown trout across North America to present day balancing of sport fishing with native fish conservation. A great read with a lovely almost-converational tone with fun stories along the way.
A fascinating history of the expanding range of rainbow and brown trout across North America to present day balancing of sport fishing with native fish conservation. A great read with a lovely almost-converational tone with fun stories along the way.
September 18, 2023
I've been catching rainbows since I was a kid. Learning about the origin story of how they made it from one end of the country to my local waters and beyond has been fascinating! I greatly enjoyed the detail and thought put into this book. Super educational and super interesting.
August 31, 2024
A good read that balances fish knowledge with the colorful vagaries of human error. Worth your time if you are interested in animal life, ecology, fishing or how humans destroy everything they touch for stupid reasons.
January 8, 2018
Though I am not a fisherman I really enjoyed this book. I did not know the rainbow trout had such an interesting history.
February 9, 2020
Absolutely phenomenal.
May 29, 2021
This was very interesting and eye opening. As a fisheries biologist this history was fascinating
June 28, 2024
If you’ve ever caught a rainbow trout you need to read this book. Super interesting to learn the story of this fish and the impacts of fish stocking in the US.
April 1, 2011
A well-researched, interesting story about the century-long effort to stock U.S. waters with rainbow trout — and the recent policy reversal that now sees the fish being eradicated from some waters. I particularly enjoyed Anders's chapters about the nineteenth-century birth of U.S. fish stocking, and about recent research showing the subtle ways that non-native fish like rainbow trout impact native species. Communicating that research in a mainstream book is vital, and Anders does so in very readable prose. The only chapter in need of enlivenment covered the worrying problems of hybridization. I found myself skimming some paragraphs in that chapter. Anders occasionally offers his own musings about rainbow trout, personal and professional, which further strengthens the book — and I wish he did more of that. He's very humble about his own wisdom and expertise. At no point does he preach, and he portrays previous generations of fishery managers and biologists with respect. They were not bad people, just cogs within massive bureaucracies trapped by the conventional wisdom of their time. Some of them became the first voices of alarm about fish stocking programs. Anders is easily accessible by email. But even if I didn't know Anders, I highly rate this book because of its background research, importance, and readability.
January 30, 2013
The first few chapters of this book were a little dry (mostly history on hatcheries and the origin of the US Fish & Wildlife Dept.), but I hung in there and made it to the second half where Halverson talks about the sociological aspects of trout stocking. Pretty interesting--I had no idea hatcheries existed solely to stock waters for fishing. Sadly, probably the most interesting part of the book is the chapter explaining the intentional poisoning of waters to rid them of native species of fish because rainbow trout were considered most desirable to catch; and then trying to bring back native species when environmentalists complained and folks realized it wasn't good for the ecosystem. Honestly not that shocking given humans' track record of ignorance towards nature, but still unfortunate to say the least.
May 12, 2010
What an interesting book...details the pitfalls of stocking non-native species and the trickle-down effects that their proliferation can have, from aquatic invertebrates to genetic diversity and hybridization. Works in historical state and federal policy, some intriguing personalities, and even a little fishing. Written conversationally and compassionately, the writing style is nothing poetic but workmanlike, serviceable, and at the very least tells a good story. If I could give this book 3.5 stars, I would...
Makes me appreciate the native brookies I have nearby and, unfortunately, think with a little disdain of the aggressively stocked streams that I also fish occasionally.
Makes me appreciate the native brookies I have nearby and, unfortunately, think with a little disdain of the aggressively stocked streams that I also fish occasionally.
May 9, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Anders Halverson took a complicated subjected and made it understandable. While explaining the history behind the stocking of rainbow trout, he also explores the audacity of mankind.
I've already begun recommending this book to my friends. You'll find it a good read even if you only have a passing interest in fish, politics, or history. Over and over, you'll shake your head and think, 'I can't believe they did something so crazy.'
If you like non-fiction, don't miss this one.
I've already begun recommending this book to my friends. You'll find it a good read even if you only have a passing interest in fish, politics, or history. Over and over, you'll shake your head and think, 'I can't believe they did something so crazy.'
If you like non-fiction, don't miss this one.
December 16, 2016
This is an interesting look at the disfunction that addresses the management policy when it comes to public lands. We as a people decided to virtually eradicate natural species in favor of a better game fish then start eradicating the game fish which has become quite virulent throughout the globe in favor of the natural species. It is a very interesting look at how the rainbow trout has promulgated the fishing industry here in the U.S. and around the globe.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews